One has to understand its historical importance in proper
context when we commemorate the centenary of Kamagata Maru event, which was a
blot of Canadian racist past. A Japanese vessel charted by Gurdit Singh and
Balwant Singh boarded with 376 passengers from different communities of India
was sailed to Canada but was kept on the Vancouver harbour for two months and finally forced to returned
under naval gunboats surveillance on July 23,1914 just to keep Canada intact a ‘WHITE
COUNTRY’. Colonial government of British India dealt with Kamagata Maru with
iron hand and opened fire in September 1914 upon arrival in Calcutta port and
killed at least 20 ill-fated passengers. Those were the days when human rights and
right to live with pride, equality and dignity was a reserved commodity for
white skinned Europeans only. It’s
evident that 400,000 European immigrants landed in Canada in 1913 but Canada
closed the doors for mere 376 Indian.
The racist reactionary actions of the Canadian Government was
very well perceived by immigrant Indian community, precisely in USA and Canada.
It left a great impact on the leadership of Gadar Party which later gave birth
to Indian Communist movement spearheading its heroic struggle against the yoke
of exploitative British Imperialism.
Britain fought two world wars and Indian suffered huge human
resources, 74,187 and 87,000 Indian soldiers were perished in WW I,WW II
respectively (Canadian were 64,990 and 45,400) and millions lost their lives
due to British managed famine in India. In 1943 when Delhi based British Govt
officials sent report to Winston Churchill about the famine which killed over 3
million people in Bengal, his immediate reaction was, ‘then why hasn’t Gandhi
died yet?’. He further commented, ‘I hate Indian, they are beastly people with
a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits’.
This deep rooted hatred of the yesteryears hasn’t vanished
yet; yes, it has changed its color, tactics and characteristics. When you see
hundred of thousand highly qualified Asians immigrants in Canada driving a cab,
trailers, working in factories and warehouses doing sundry jobs, it’s there.
When you see Pat Pimm MLA (B.C) ridiculing indigenous people on the claim of
agricultural land issue, it’s there. When you see Harper Government introducing
Bill C-24 to steal Canadian citizenship, it’s there. When you see immigrants
are deliberately discouraged to invite their family members i.e. parents,
spouse or children, it’s there. When you see flyers being distributed in
Brampton and York University; targeting immigrants callously, It’s there. When you see work permit workers are being
treated beyond the ambit of the constitution, it’s there and so on so forth.
Kamagata Maru, under
Gurdit Singh is still hope for the hopeless and the people who are at the
receiving end of religious, caste, creed, national, color discrimination. He
allowed all religious communities to board a voyage to a land where they all
could realise their dream. That world is still non existence in true sense. Let
us strive for a world where humanity is far from all the man made curses which
it is suffering from.
Photo: Google
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